A boardwalk is a place, most typically in beachfront communities, where a path for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles runs along a beach or overlooking and close to a beach. There are boardwalks in many places in the world; however, they are extremely common along the East Coast of the United States.

Famous boardwalks

• Atlantic City, New Jersey - The boardwalk starts at Absecon Inlet and runs along the beach for two miles to the city limit. An additional half mile extends into Ventnor City. Casino/hotels front the boardwalk, as well as retail stores, restaurants, and amusements. Several piers extend the boardwalk over the Atlantic Ocean. Garden Pier houses the Atlantic City Historical Museum and the Atlantic City Art Center. This boardwalk gained notoriety due to the board game Monopoly, which was based upon the trading and dealing of real estate in Atlantic City. The four story "Pier at Caesars" entertainment complex is scheduled to open some time in 2005.

• Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York - Located along the southern shore of Brooklyn along the Atlantic Ocean, Coney Island is known for the amusement parks along the boardwalk. Many of its most famous parks no longer exist, but the boardwalk still hosts the Cyclone roller coaster and the Wonder Wheel ferris wheel, as well as the New York Aquarium . A recent addition to the boardwalk is KeySpan Park, home of the minor-league Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team.

• Hampton Beach, New Hampshire - This boardwalk is largely a tourist attraction. In fact it is widely used for common shops where it is possible for tourists to purchase souvenirs and trinkets to remember their trip.

• Sandwich, Massachusetts - This boardwalk does not strictly speaking, lead along the beach. Rather, it begins in a parking lot and leads through the salt marshes and out to the beach. It was destroyed in a powerful storm and was then rebuilt through donations made by the townspeople. In turn, family names were carved into the planks of the boardwalk and it is still used to this day.

• Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Santa Cruz, California - This boardwalk is the oldest amusement park in California, and is the home to two national historic landmarks - the Looff Carousel and the Giant Dipper roller coaster. The boardwalk was opened in 1907.

• Toronto, Ontario, Canada - The Beaches neighbourhood has a boardwalk along its scenic Lake Ontario shoreline. It runs from Ashbridge's Bay in the west to the R.C. Harris Filtration Plant in the east.

• Venice Beach, California - This boardwalk has a bike path, rollerskaters and skateboard ramps, restaurants,sunglasses and plenty of tourists. Venice beach is famous for muscle beach, where body builders work out. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger worked out on Muscle Beach and made Gold's Gym famous in the 1980s.

Non-famous boardwalks

• Eskimo Villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska - Today, 10 foot wide heavy-duty boardwalks are common in villages throughout this part of Alaska. Tuntutuliak was the first village to receive them in the mid 1990s by way of a governemt funded program to see if they would be a worthwhile investment elsewhere. Before the existence of these boardwalks, a much narrower, lower and less extensive system of boards and boardwalks served delta villages. [1]

External link

• The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk